Monday, February 22, 2016

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.C)
was founded in 1794 as a response to racial discrimination in the American
Methodist Church when officials at St. George’s MEC pulled members of the Free
African Society off their knees while praying. These members desired a
congregation where they would not be discriminated against while trying to pray
and formed the Bethel A.M.E.C. The A.M.E.C. spread throughout the Northeast and
by 1837, Schenectady’s first A.M.E. congregation was formed, the Duryee
Memorial A.M.E.
Zion Church. Schenectady was the birthplace of first female ordained deacon in
the A.M.E. Zion Church, Julia A.J. Foote. Her autobiography, A Brand Plucked
from the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketch gives a harrowing account of
her early life in Schenectady and the struggles she faced throughout her life as a black female
preacher. It's also an engaging read and a lot of Julia's beliefs are surprisingly modern, such as her views on gender and racial equality.

Sketch of the A.M.E. Church in Schenectady from the
April 25, 1908 issue of the Daily Gazette.

According to her autobiography, Julia’s
father and mother were slaves. In a tragic turn of events, her father was
actually born free but was stolen as a child and enslaved. Her mother was born
a slave in New York. Julia’s father eventually saved enough to buy his family
from slavery. Her parents were Methodists and would regularly attend the
Methodist Church in Schenectady where blacks were required to sit in certain
seats and had to wait till every white person finished communion. She remarks
on the vast inequality in the Church, saying “How many at the present day
profess great spirituality, and even holiness, and yet are deluded by a spirit of
error, which leads them to say to the poor and the colored ones among them,
'Stand back a little—I am holier than thou.'"
﻿

Julia A.J. Foote as shown
in her autobiography.

Many of the chapters in Julia’s autobiography act as
a parable that relates back to her faith and spiritual beliefs. Chapter six
tells the story of the hanging of her teacher, her reaction to it, and how it formed her beliefs. When
Julia was ten, she was sent to live with the Prime family in Glenville who sent
her to be taught by John Van Patten in Rotterdam. She was a quick study in
reading and writing due to her “great anxiety to read the Testament.” However, she wasn't able to be taught by Mr. Van Patten for very long. Mr. Van
Patten shot and killed a paramour who insulted him and was hung for his crimes.
Julia witnessed the hanging and it shook her, “The remembrance of this scene
left such an impression upon my mind that I could not sleep for many a night.”
The hanging of her former teacher formed her belief that the taking of any life, even “a
life for a life, as many believe God commands,” was a horrible, barbarous
thing.

Her family eventually moved to Albany to join
the A.M.E. Zion Church where her faith was reignited. She married George Foote
at the age of eighteen and moved to Boston. In Boston, she was dedicated to
informal evangelizing in her community. Foote believed that she had been
sanctified by the Holy Spirit and was destined to become a preacher. This was a
highly controversial belief that challenged Christian tradition, as well as
many American beliefs. Her mother, husband, and minister of her church all
disapproved of Julia’s public preaching. Not even the lack of higher support
from higher church authorities could sway Julia from preaching, and she began
an independent preaching career.

"When Paul said, ‘Help those women who labor with me in the Gospel,’ he certainly meant that they did more than to pour out tea!”- Julia A. J. Foote

Julia traveled throughout upstate New York
with other A.M.E. ministers and worked her way west to Ohio and Michigan, often
attracting crowds of thousands of both white and black Americans. Her sermons would often focus on the evils of racism and sexism. She was the first woman ordained as a deacon in
1894 and was the second to hold the office of elder in the A.M.E. denomination
in 1900. Julia died on November 22, 1901 and was buried in the Cypress Hill
Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Within Schenectady’s Vale Cemetery
lies the African-American Ancestral Burial Ground.Among the interred is Jared Jackson, a Civil
War soldier whose story was uncovered only in recent years, through the efforts
of social studies teacher and local historian Neil Yetwin. (See this article in The Gazette from May 3, 2003 for more information).Jackson’s story is not only that of an
individual, but is also representative of the many African-American soldiers who
served honorably in the Civil War, and whose lives were shaped by the pernicious
forces of slavery and racism.

﻿

Veterans Plaque in Vale cemetery. Courtesy
of Diane Leone

Jared Jackson
was born in Bethlehem, New
York on May 20, 1840, the son of George and Jane Ann Jackson, who
migrated from New York City after New YorkState abolished slavery in 1827.They worked as tenant farmers.Jared too was a farmer, and only twenty-three
years old when he enlisted to fight for the Union.

Efforts to
include African-Americans in the Union military bore fruit after Abraham
Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863.On May 22 of that year, the War Department
issued Order 143, which established the United States Colored Troops (USCT).After enlisting in Albany
on December 14, 1863 Jackson became a soldier in
Company N of the New York
20th Regiment of the USCT.

New York’s three regiments--the 20th,
26th, and 31st—comprised 4,125 troops.Apparently, most of the 20th received basic
training at Riker’s Island in New York City; the
rest at the Elmira
Military and Draft Rendezvous. On March
5, in a racially charged New York City, two
groups convened as the 20th Regiment and were given a rousing send-off in Union Square, where
the one-thousand recruits marched past an enthusiastic crowd, before being conveyed
to the USS Ericsson on their way to New
Orleans.

﻿

Presentation of colors to the 20th United States Colored Infantry in New York City.
Courtesy of the National Park Service

Although
African-American men were now serving in the military, not everyone agreed on
what their role should be.Even some whites
who supported freedom for blacks viewed them as intellectually inferior and
lacking in the discipline needed for soldiering.Racism was a factor within the US military as
well.Black soldiers were disproportionately
given garrison duty, and forced to serve as cooks and laborers, as was Jackson. Furthermore, in contrast to their white
counterparts, who received $13 per month plus a clothing allowance, African-American recruits were paid $10 per month--whether they served as laborers or
soldiers--minus a $3 clothing allowance.As noted by William Seraile, author New
York’s Black Regiments During the Civil War, members of the 20th
Regiment would have paid $24.50 for clothing and supplies prior to their first
posting in New Orleans.In June of 1864 Congress granted equal pay to
black troops, with certain restrictions.Finally, on March 3, 1865, Congress passed a sweeping law approving
equal pay for blacks.Seraile points out
however, that pay was quite irregular, many men going for months without
compensation.

While
information on Jackson
is limited, we can flesh out the 20th Regiment in which he first served.According to Seraile’s study of government
records, ofthe 1,325 recruits, over
half (712) were born in New YorkState, as was Jackson.Farmers like Jackson made up the second largest contingent
(340), surpassed only by laborers (616).The twenty-three year-old was part of the majority age cohort; 52% of the
men were in their twenties.

We know that
USCT regiments were led by white officers.Very few black men were appointed to the rank of commissioned officer, the
most notable exceptions being the regimental chaplains.In New
YorkState,
there were no black commissioned line officers.On the other hand, blacks did serve as non-commissioned officers, often
replacing whites in these positions as time went on. Jackson,
in fact, was made a corporal.In his African-American Soldiers in the Civil War:
USCT 1862-1866, Mark Lardas notes that training brought out qualities
needed in NCOs, such as literacy, leadership potential, and intelligence.We can assume that Jared Jackson must have
distinguished himself to merit this promotion.

Prison Camp in Elmira, New York. Courtesy of the
New York State Archives

Jackson’s
regiment was sent to Louisiana to do menial labor.William Seraile explains that many soldiers
became ill, the combined results of subtropical conditions, poorly cooked food,
lack of proper nutrition, and unsanitary conditions, exacerbated by inadequate
health care. Two hundred of these men, including
Jackson, were sent to Elmira Prison Camp, newly
created from what had previously been a military depot where recruits like Jackson underwent basic
training. Made to hold five thousand
prisoners, in its one-year existence it housed over twelve thousand in abysmal conditions
that resulted in a 24% death rate, primarily from diseases, malnutrition, and
exposure to the elements.Among its
inmates, the prison came to be known aptly as “Hellmira.” Michael Horigan
offers a fascinating account of the prison in Elmira: Death Camp of the North. For a brief overview of this facility, see “When Hell Was in Elmira: Civil War Prison
Camp 150 Years Later,”
by Keri Blakinger.

Member of the U.S.
Colored Troops
Guarding a Confederate
prisoner at Elmira. Courtesy
of the Chemung County
Historical Society.

Jackson’s
group, which arrived in mid-July, was tasked with guarding the Confederate
prisoners, who showed their resentment by spitting, and hurling insults,
including racial slurs in the guards’ direction. In spite of these circumstances, the guards
carried out their duties professionally.In October 1864, ten prisoners managed to escape via tunnel, in one of
the most amazing breakouts in the war.According
to Neil Yetwin, although white guards who had fallen asleep on duty were
actually responsible, the 20th was blamed.As a result, they were sent to South Carolina and Louisiana
as laborers. Corporal Jackson at this point was transferred to Company H of the
26th Regiment, based in Beaufort,
South Carolina.Although primarily involved in skirmishes, they
did participate in several battles, including the Battle of Honey Hill on
November 30, 1864.Records indicate that
Jackson hurt
his back while unloading a naval vessel on November 1, 1864.He was discharged from the military on
August 28, 1865.

William
Seraile refers to a homecoming celebration reported in the Albany News at the time. On September 19, 1865, two hundred black
residents of the city met with soldiers discharged from the 54th
Massachusetts Colored Volunteers and the 26th Regiment of the USCT.
One wonders whether the young corporal attended the reception held in the
soldiers’ honor.

In his new civilian life, Jackson returned temporarily to his family in Bethlehem, then moved to Schenectady and married Hannah E. Wendell in
1866.After trying his hand at running a stable near Fonda, he
settled down as a laborer in Schenectady.He and Hannah purchased a house and had
a daughter, Lucrecia.She and her
husband, Theodore Springstead, gave Jared and Hannah four grandchildren.

In spite of
having served the Union honorably, Jackson,
along with many veterans—particularly African-Americans—were deprived of their disability
pensions for many years.In Sven E.
Wilson’s insightful article, “Prejudice & Policy: Racial
Discrimination in the Union Army Disability Pension System, 1865-1906,”he states that the application
process was burdensome and expensive, which automatically put many poor,
uneducated blacks at a disadvantage.Even when they applied, many African-Americans had difficulties.Despite a higher mortality rate due to
disease, during the war they were not hospitalized for illness as frequently as
their white counterparts; consequently, they often could not provide the
certification needed to verify their claims. Complicating the situation was the
tendency of pension bureau employees to more frequently give white applicants
the benefit of the doubt in cases of uncertainty.

At last, in
September of 1888, after many years of waiting, Jackson received the $12 monthly payment to
which he was entitled. It is possible that he applied based on his back injury
mentioned earlier.In an unkind twist of
fate, Jackson
expired soon after, on November 21, 1888, of “consumption and liver disease,”
as listed on his death certificate.He
was laid to rest on November 25.

Jared
Jackson is only one example of the thousands of African-Americans who served
their country in the Civil War. As Marsha Mortimore notes in her pamphlet, The Early African American Presence in the
City of Schenectady (June 2014), three other Schenectady soldiers from the
26th Regiment have been identified: William Childers, John
Dickenson, and Peter Sampson.Although
no details are available for two of these men, Childers served in Company H of
the 26th Regiment, as did Jackson.He saw action at the Battle of Bloody Bridge,
St. John’sIsland,
in South Carolina.
He too lived in Schenectady
after the war, but, unlike Jackson,
Childers lived to the ripe old age of 90.

All of these
veterans’ names are listed on the African-American Civil War Memorial in Washington, DC.We owe a debt of gratitude to them, and to all
of the approximately 200,000 black soldiers and sailors who heeded the call of
Frederick Douglass:

Who would be free
themselves must strike the blow....I urge you to fly to arms and smite to death
the power that would burythe Governmentand your liberty in
the same hopeless grave. This is your golden opportunity.